Disney's bid to buy out the majority of Fox's entertainment assets was the talk of the town a year ago, until the two companies hit a roadblock - an anti-competitive complaint by the Department of Justice.

Fox has increased its bid by just over 30% since its first offer in December 2016.

Martin Gilbert, deputy chairman of Sky, said that Comcast's offer represent an "attractive premium to the current alternative offer".

Comcast said its cash offer has been recommended by Sky's independent committee of directors.

Echoing an earlier report, now it may be likely that Comcast has given up on trying to acquire Fox Studios, which means Disney will get the rights back to the X-Men, Wolverine, Deadpool, Fantastic Four and related characters.

The quick counteroffer suggests that the war to seize control of Britain's biggest pay-TV company is heating up, since the previous bid was $31 billion from Comcast in April.

Now it's up to Comcast (cmcsa) to decide how much Sky is worth. The deal between Disney and Fox is far from finalized as the latter company's shareholders still have to vote on the acquisition.

At the same time, U.K. Secretary of State Jeremy Wright gave Fox the OK on its Sky deal, provided the company divests Sky News to either Disney or another company.

The end of the week is also be the deadline for Comcast to post an offer to Sky shareholders, who then have 60 days to consider that offer under United Kingdom takeover rules. "The market's collective wisdom appears to be pricing in a cool down in the bidding war for Fox with Disney and Comcast each rallying today, with Fox down 4%". The opposition has not completely subsided despite the plan to spin off Sky News.

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Civil Aviation Authority investigators were at the scene and started the process of determining the cause of the accident. The plane was supposed to leave South Africa around Thursday, according to Dutch news agency ANP.

The trade dispute between the United States and China escalated on Friday, but Wall Street focused on a solid jobs report instead. Importers of American retail goods hit by higher Chinese duties were reluctant to pass the costs on to consumers for now.

Tintin and Asterix have always been rivals in the world of the comic strips for both are popular for their entertainment and art. FIFA boss Gianni Infantino had invited the boys' Wild Boars football team to Sunday's World Cup final last week.

Initial euphoria over finding the boys alive quickly turned into deep anxiety as rescuers struggled to find a way to get them out. The boys and their coach had been stranded in Tham Luang Nang Non when they went exploring in the cave after a scrimmage June 23.

Officials say they are in good health but will not be allowed close contact with their relatives because of the risk of infection. The first four rescued boys have been placed in a ward set aside specifically for the cave rescue, a source at the hospital said.

Tehran dismissed it is an orchestrated "false flag ploy", created to discredit Iran and overshadow Rouhani's trip to Europe. Iranians have complained that the hoped-for rise in foreign investment and trade after the deal has not materialised.

The alliance says that 15 members, or just over half, will meet the benchmark by that year, based on current trends. Trump said Tuesday he "can't say right now" if Putin is a friend or foe, but called him a "competitor".

Former leader Michael Howard said a bid to oust Mrs May would be "extremely foolish and extremely ill-advised". He said: "Now that the secretary of state has resigned , clearly there will be more scrutiny on the deal".

Apple rumoured to be updating at last
The company said in a press release that the 15-inch model is up to 70 percent faster, while the 13-inch model is twice as fast. Apple's Macbook Pro keyboard design has been under fire recently for its rate of failure and high cost to replace.

UK's Brexit Secretary David Davis has resigned
The resignation comes two days after the whole of the cabinet met at Chequers to agree Britain's negotiating position. Ian Lavery, chair of the Labour Party, said: "This is absolute chaos and Theresa May has no authority left".

Japan says death toll from floods climbs to 100
The Okayama prefecture said three people had died, six others were missing and seven were injured, while almost 500 were flooded. At least 60 people have died in Japan as the country is battered by the worst rains and flooding in the country's history.

Justin Bieber and Hailey Baldwin are engaged, report says
Selena didn't think they were even that serious, so the thought of them getting married is just mind-boggling to her. His mother, Pattie Mallette , tweeted " Love Love Love Love Love Love Love ." on the same night of the engagement .

Tropical Storm Beryl takes aim at eastern Caribbean
A tropical storm warning remained in effect for Dominica and Guadeloupe, while a tropical storm watch was issued for Barbados, St. We'll continue to monitor this feature and provide updates during NBC2 Newscasts throughout the next several days.

Trump says OPEC is 'doing little' to lower gas prices
However, the Chinese government has not yet specified a date on which it may introduce duties on imports of US crude. Even so, renewed US sanctions on Iran against its oil exports look set to tighten supply further.

Reliance unveils fibre broadband service in 1,100 cities
Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani said that the FTTH service will be provided in 1,100 cities across the country. It now offers fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) broadband connections with 1.1TB (terabytes) of free data at a speed of 100 mbps.